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Strange HTML table behavior in Firefox and Safari

Hello here.

I have a strange issue I'd like to have your opinion for. If you try to look at the following page with Firefox or Safari (on a Mac of course), and try to reload the page several times, sometimes you'll notice that the left main navigation table shrinks to the left. The issue appears to be random:

shrinking nav table

Just a guess. I think it may have something to do with the "body onload focus" to the search. I read somewhere about a browser bug where some elements expanded when they got focus. (Sorry, but I don't remember more details) What happens if you (temporarily) remove the onload focus to the search?

I really don't understand... the problem is completely random. Please, could you tell me if you see what I mean too? Try to see the following page in Firefox and try to reload it several times until the left navigation box shrinks:

left nav

I did see the effect yesterday a few times. Now it looks like the left nav is OK to me. I do see some "shifting around" as things load in. Are you sure that what you are seeing as the left nav expanding isn't really the top nav links sliding left a bit? I also notice the center column adjusts as the right column loads in. Using relative sizes is a good thing IMO, so I wouldn't change that. I think some browser adjustment of layout during page load is quite normal. The browser adjusts for viewport dimensions, text size settings, image loading enabled, CSS enabled etc.
So I guess what I'm getting at is, Do the pages look consistant after they have finished loading? If what you are seeing is loading adjustments I woulsn't worry about that, but if the pages look different after the browser finishes rendering them, then that's a concern.

I found where was the problem: a javascript function. There was an unused javascript function that caused that issue! By removing it fixed the problem. Strange, isn't it? At least we learned a lesson: avoid unused javascript functions!

Thank you again very much for helping me to find this out, it has been really appreciated.